A son of the Zhuang clan of Taixing in Weiyang (Yangzhou); his father's style was Chengzhi, his mother of the Ma clan, a house that had served the Three Jewels for generations. THERE WERE EIGHTEEN CHILDREN AND HE WAS THE LAST. In the cradle he would put his palms together at a Buddha-image and retch at the smell of wine or fish. At nine his brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces all died one after another; at eleven he lost his father, the family estate emptied and the gate went quiet — and the wish to leave the world stirred. But his mother was old, and he laboured to feed her and never failed in his duty, giving away what was left over and never thinking of marriage — until his mother arranged a match in secret and forced him to wed. His hunger for the Way only grew, and he strayed into a heterodox sect and even led it, before turning back: 'This is not the true gate to the Way — how can I go on thinking myself right?' At the Lantern Festival he went into the city to see the lamps, saw a notice for a Chan retreat at Juehua hermitage, and thought: 'Here is a gate of Chan; the road of practice is not lost after all.' He carried incense to Juehua and met ZHULANG. 'Layman, where do you come from, and what for?' — 'I have come to ask for teaching. But I do not know whether a householder may practise Chan.' Zhulang laughed: 'CAN YOU EAT AT HOME?' — 'I eat.' — 'IF YOU CAN EAT, YOU CAN DO CHAN.' He later held the Huayan hall at Longshan in Fenyang, Shanxi.
References: DILA Authority A016564 | Shidian Guji
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